A New Outlook

How an astronaut helped give me a new perspective on life
We’re already a fair chunk of the way into 2016 so I thought it was about time I updated things here. As you get older time seems to pass ever more quickly and it stuns me that it’s the 13th February 2016 already. It’s been an eventful year for me so far, though internally rather than externally.
It is impossible to begin a new year in the modern world without being surrounded by people embarking on the idea of “new year, new me”. I suspect by this point the majority of new year’s resolutions will have fallen by the wayside. Since becoming an adult I have ignored the idea of new year resolutions and this year was was ostensibly no different.
Somehow though, I think a little bit of the sudden increase in my peers attempting to improve themselves rubbed off on me. Whilst I didn’t have a concrete resolution I began to think that 2016 should be the year I sorted myself out. I gave up on the idea of becoming a teacher in May 2014 and nearly two years have passed and I’ve not progressed with my life whatsoever. I’m doing a low-paid job, especially for someone educated to degree level.
I began spending more time looking at job websites and possible ideas for training and education. Suddenly it became something of an obsession and I was looking at thousands of jobs listings every day. I must have looked at tens of thousands of jobs in January and the first week of February and there is no exaggeration here. Whilst there were a few of interest I didn’t find anything that fitted the bill. As you may imagine, this begins to have quite a negative effect on your self-esteem.
It was a book which really helped my brain out a little. I’ve recently become a little obsessed with astronomy and space travel and my most recent indulgence in this area was reading astronaut Chris Hadfield’s book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. I expected an interesting book about going to the International Space Station, which I got, but I also got some interesting perspectives on life.
My views have changed. I realised it was pointless spending my life worrying about how I am going to spend my life. It’s time to live it. OK, so my job isn’t really the dream but for the most part I enjoy it. Whilst it’s not ideal living at home with my parents it does mean that a low income isn’t a huge issue at the moment and I’m saving a reasonable sum of money which will be useful in the future. I will still keep an eye out for potential new jobs but I’m not going to obsess about it anymore. I know that an opportunity will come up eventually but for the time being I just have to enjoy my current situation.
One thing Chris Hadfield talks about is being a “zero”. He says that in life you can be a minus one, someone who hinders a situation, a plus one, someone who helps it, or a zero, a neutral. Obviously you don’t want to be a minus one and make life more difficult for people. Ideally you want to be a plus one but going about your life acting like you are a plus one is simply going to alienate people. The best thing you can do is to aim to be a zero, to not make things worse and help in any way you can. By doing this you can often end up being a plus one. I have adopted this wonderful philosophy and am going about my daily life aiming to be a zero. So far, it is working really well.
So that’s where I’m at. I fear I am generally a negative person and it feels remarkable to be suddenly living with a positive spin on things. To end, here’s the wonderful Chris Hadfield singing Space Oddity, originally by the incredible musician that was David Bowie:

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